• Cheri on January 02, 2011

  Never had a failure from this book. Excellent

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Marinated fresh mozzarella (Bocconcini )

  • stepharama1 on January 17, 2023

    I decreased the oil by about 50% and added some fennel seeds. This was excellent!

• Pear, provolone, and arugula salad

  • kbrooks on November 10, 2025

    Loved this salad combination. Reduced the olive oil to 1/3 cup for a tarter, less oily dressing. Eliminated the champagne but did use champagne vinegar. The fresh mint and fresh basil are the perfect addition to brighten it all up.

• Grilled leeks with walnut cream vinaigrette

  • bktravels on November 01, 2020

    Disappointing. Note that the sauce is a vinaigrette. I think a cream sauce, with the leeks served as a side dish rather than a first course, would have been better. The "walnut" in the vinaigrette is just from walnut oil. The toasted walnuts are used to garnish the finished dish.

• Gazpacho vinaigrette for avocado

  • kbrooks on May 04, 2026

    I think the delicate flavor of avocados is lost in this vinaigrette.

• Butternut squash soup (Passato di zucca)

  • janecook on July 10, 2021

    mellow & satisfying

• Broccoli soup with white beans

  • Cheri on January 16, 2011

    This is very good, filling, easy. Used 2 cans of white beans. Steamed broccoli in microwave. Sauted onions in olive oil & butter until browning a bit, added broccoli and one carton chicken stock. Brought to a boil, pureed a bit (leaving some larger pieces of broccoli). Turned off the heat. Added beans and cooked pasta bits, ground black pepper. Served with grated parmesan/romano blend.

• Spaghetti with scallops, roasted red peppers, and pine nuts

  • lorloff on January 16, 2023

    I thought this was simple and delicious. The bay scallops, pine nuts, and roasted peppers worked really well together. My husband through there was too little going on in the dish. I cooked the bay scallops in the oil removed them from the pan then then added the roasted peppers and cooked them to infuse their flavor in the sauce, I would add some garlic and infuse it in the oil the scallops are first cooked in. I quickly cooked the scallops removed them from the pan then assembled the rest of the sauce an when just reach to served added back the scallops. Will try this once more with sea scallops cut up to site size of back and I will use a full pound. The pinenuts in the is were superb. I will think about doing this any time I have homemade roasted peppers. I used organic jarred and they were fine.

• Grilled salmon with orange and black pepper aioli

  • jfleissn on August 01, 2022

    This is delicious—the aioli and the rub on the salmon have a wonderful synergy together.

• Salmon with red onions and red wine

  • stepharama1 on January 17, 2023

    I found the directions for the onion confit portion of the recipe to be lacking. I finished the confit by caramelizing the red onions although this was not called for in the recipe. After the caramelization, the onion confit was excellent. Without the caramelization it was soupy and insipid. I also did not add the sugar (onions were sweet enough) and decreased the quantity of butter.

• Catalan-style grilled chicken

  • jfleissn on June 29, 2023

    This is an older cookbook, but Ottolenghi-type recipes are often too wild for my husband so I thought I would try it again. This recipe was a bit frustrating: I could tell, e.g., that 3 T. vinegar seemed like very little for 3/4 c. olive oil and 1/2 c. honey in a supposedly agrodolce marinade, and 2 T. freshly ground cumin seemed like a ton (vs. 1 T. garlic), but the marinade itself tasted good when I made it. On the meat (we used poussins, which worked great), the cumin was very dominant with a background sweetness from the honey, and the garlic and vinegar undetectable. It was nice but could have been wonderful. I would punch those two up when making it, and maybe cut down the cumin as well.

• Sardinian vegetable sauté

  • kbrooks on February 28, 2025

    This is delicious whether you make it with all 3 vegetables or only 1 or 2. Works as a side dish or toss with short tubular pasta.

• Swiss chard tagine

  • kbrooks on May 04, 2026

    Wouldn't make this again.